Product Overview

Using a comprehensive sample of publicly listed firms in 30 countries over the period 2001-2010, the authors found that greater foreign institutional ownership fosters long-term investment in tangible, intangible, and human capital?and leads to significant increases in innovation output. This finding challenges the view of many that foreign investors lead firms to adopt a short-term orientation and forgo long-term investment. The results also suggest that foreign institutions exert a disciplinary role on entrenched corporate insiders worldwide. This briefing is a condensed, practitioner-oriented version?with insights for corporate leaders and updated data covering the period 2001-2017?of the authors' academic article "Are foreign investors locusts? The long-term effects of foreign institutional ownership," published in 2017 in the Journal of Financial Economics.